For the Wolf-Review

 

I have received an eArc of this book through NetGalley in exchange of a honest review.

"For the Wolf" it's not an YA and I'm glad of it. It was what draw me in reading this book and I'm happy to see it wasn't disproved. However, even if it' isn't an YA in its fullness, it has some YA elements, especially when it comes to the main romance.
But I'll start from the beginning.

The book is advertised as a retelling of Red Riding Hood but that's not quite right. If you have been drawn to it because of that you could have a minor disappointment. If you didn't want to read it for the same reason, don't worry, because it's a really mild retelling. The main elements that have been taken from the tale are the characteristic red cloak, a forest and the name "Wolf". The rest is an original tale with elements from Snowhite and The Beauty and The Beast (kind of).
It was clear for me that the author wanted to set an atmosphere halfway between a fairy-tale and a horror story. The description of the woods and some events are written as if trying to obtain a horror and upsetting vibe, but it wasn't quite reached for me.

The story it's kind of predictable, but not too much, so you are able to enjoy the twists.

The main character, Redarys, is the youngest between two sisters. Traditionally the oldest one, Neve in this case, will ascend to the throne. The youngest, Red, will be sacrificed to the Forest and to its Wolf in order to encourage the return of Five powerful Kings from the legends. 

The main issue for me was the narrative rhythm and the scarce worldbuilding. The latter is quite poor, but I'll explain myself better. 
I see a recent trend in fantasy books confusing worldbuilding with mythology. But myths are just a part of worldbuilding. An important part, certainly, but not the only one. 
A compelling world building is one that shows the reader lots of aspects of the world the story is set in: geography, well-described settings, etc. It's also one that gives the idea of a large world with its political and economical mechanisms and history.  Hannah Whitten does a nice job in the historical and mythological part, but it's kind of repetitive focusing on three or four elements. Maybe it will be deepened in the other books, but the approach to worldbuilding here doesn't convince me. 

Then, the geographical part it's quite poor. We have three settings and the one that it's described best is the forest, but I feel that there could have been more to it, especially if some repetitve concepts were left out.

Here I come to the second issue: the rhythm of the story. It started quite well. A bit of info dumping but that's is often normal and necessary even if I appreciate more a different and diluted approach. The thing is that this info dumping continued through 30% of the book, some concepts were repeated too often when it was not necessary and some conclusions where easy to draw for the reader, while for Red it took almost the entire book. This last part could be ok if well told, but I felt it wasn't compelling as it could have due to the repetitions, as I've said before. I found the pace slow and sometimes a little bit boring with little insight on events and characters to justify it. Again, if some concepts that had already been written hadn't been repeated it would have worked better, at least for me.

The next thing: the relationship between Red and Neve. It should be the strong link that stirs the plot, Neve looking for Red, but it's based on the reader inconditional trust that this relationship is strong as it's been said. You do not have time to really appreciate the love between the two sisters, you can only take the author's word on that. It's like it's being said: "They are sister and they love each other. Accept it. I  can't show it to you now through in depth memories and all". And we are talking about a 464 pages book, so there should have been time.

So, those are the critical points in the book, according to me: rhythm (even if it gets better in the last 20%), worldbuilding (too scarce even for a first book), some  writing regarding relationships. There are some nice ideas and the style is good, but overall it could have been better structured so that every aspect could be enjoyed and repetitions  avoided.

Next: the main romance. There will be spoilers about it, so if you don't want to read it, skip it and go to the next paragraph.

The pair Red-Wolf it's quite obvious from the start and that's totally fine, it could be the reason you would want to read the book. The "problem" here is that it's again quite repetitive in its dynamics: getting close-walk through the forest-danger-getting apart and so on. It becomes quite frustrating reading about Red saying the same things to the Wolf over and over. And I think that when they finally get there, this incredibile love that has presumably grown  can't be felt so much by the readers. And that's maybe because even if it's a  character driven plot the glimpses on the characters psychology are focused on the same elements over and over.

That been said, I don't think this is a "bad" fantasy book. I have read some bad-written, bad-developed fantasy novels and this is better than those. I didn't really liked it, even if I was ready to love it, as always with the books I read.
The horror elements are a nice touch, I wish they would have been better placed and more vividly described  I hope it will happen in the sequels.
The mythology and magic linked to the forest is well thought but I hope it will be deepened (for example more insights on the religious system, because it's quite strange how it could stand like this. Again the reader it's asked to trust what's been said even if the info are little and the historical facts are superficial).
The secondary characters have the potential for developing and seem quite interesting so I hope it will be given them some space to be known by the reader.
I also hope to see more about Neve and Red past because it was only mentioned focusing on the same points. The same goes with the Wolf.

I will read the sequels to see where they will end and I'm curious about that, but this is not a book I would recommend to those who love a balance between a well written world building and in depth character developement as do I. 
However I think it could be enjoyed as a light read from those who appreciated "The Lunar Chronciles", even if it's quite different from those and even If I appreciated more "Cinder" than "For The Wolf".

The overall vote is 2.5/5 ⭐

I didn't dislike it, but I didn't like it either. It's almost there but not quite; I am curious to see how the author will grow.